Impatiens walleriana Hook.f.

Hooker, J.D. (1868) Flora of Tropical Africa 1: 302. Type: Mozamb. Distr. Moramballa, 2000 ft., on stones in streams (Dec.), Dr. Kirk! and Mr. H. Waller!.

Balsam; Busy Lizzie

Flowers and fruits as of a shrub but often flowers when smaller.

Leaf blades elliptic to ovate, about 5.5-8 x 2.5-3 cm, petioles about 0.1-0.2 cm long with glands along the edge. Lateral veins about 5-8 on each side of the midrib. Margins with about 12-15 teeth or glands on each side of the leaf blade.

Inflorescence a 2-flowered umbel. Flowers about 4 cm diam., pedicels about 2 cm long. Calyx irregular, lateral sepals about 4 mm long, lower sepal large, about 15 mm long with a long slender spur about 3.5 cm long attached to the base. Petals adhering to each other basally. Stamens fused in a hood above the ovary. Pollen pink to purple. Style absent. Stigmas sessile.

Fruits about 20-27 x 9-12 mm. Splitting explosively along one suture when ripe, throwing seeds for distances up to 1 m. Seeds about 2.5-3 mm long. Testa clothed in numerous short fleshy hairs. Embryo about 2.2-1.5 mm, radicle shorter and narrower than the cotyledons.

Features not available.

An introduced species originally from southern Africa now naturalised in NEQ, south-eastern Queensland and the Sydney district of New South Wales. Altitudinal range in NEQ from 200-800 m. Grows in disturbed rain forest but also found on the margins of rain forest and along the creeks.

Commonly cultivated as a garden plant with numerous colour forms.

It seeds prolifically and has escaped in numerous areas.